The Internet has become a major platform for provision of data, due to its wide availability. High Volume Internet content providers employ large server farms in order to provide responses to user requests for information within a short response time. The request load received by the server farm varies greatly over time, and consequently there are times in which some of the servers in such server farms are idle.
US patent publication 2009/0106571 to Low et al., titled: “Systems and Methods to Adaptively Balance User Sessions to Reduce Energy Consumption”, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a power management schedule for a server group, which dynamically controls the level of power of the servers according to the load on the servers. In paragraph [0213] thereof, Low suggests that the power control system use a plurality of set point parameters chosen to meet a desired relationship between load and capacity.